Canta Per Me

Iselen and I.

Also Mirei and Albert stood up.

We were all unarmed.

We couldn’t sit at an invited table wearing swords.

“Hehehe…… Hahahaha!”

Dierk laughed loudly and kicked the table over.

Whooom!

The iron table over ten meters long flipped in one go, scattering the turkey, food, plates, and drinks on top.

An enormous weight, yet he’d overturned it in one motion.

People reflexively dodged to the sides, and Dierk kicked off the wall and charged forward.

An application of Mana Sprint — wall running.

Not an easy feat, but Dierk pulled it off immediately and headed for the exit.

“He’s fleeing!”

I immediately followed, but the controlled Dargal swung his fist at me.

I deflected it lightly, grabbed his arm, and slammed him down hard.

Dierk’s terminals required him to concentrate somewhat.

Right now he was focused on his own escape, so it would be sloppy.

Albert and Mirei shouted while facing the charging Uren.

“Your Majesty! Please avoid!”

“Special Officer! I’m not sure what’s happening, but catch him!”

Iselen and I chased Dierk without either of us saying who’d go first.

But suddenly the footsteps disappeared.

“Rigen!”

And a voice calling out.

Kalbina, who’d been waiting in advance, came running with my sword and other people’s blades in her arms.

“What……”

“Behind you!”

Dierk suddenly burst from the shadows.

Like a flying squirrel, swiftly pouncing on Kalbina.

“Kgh!”

Kalbina dropped all the swords from her arms and kicked them toward us with her feet.

With her arms already full, she couldn’t dodge or block, so that was her response!

It was brilliant, but Dierk instantly sank his teeth into Kalbina’s nape.

“Haaagh!”

But…… at that moment, I charged.

I accelerated while kicking up a sword that slid toward me with my toes.

Mana Sprint!

Simultaneously using telekinesis, I pulled the kicked-up sword toward me, caught it, and thrust straight forward.

“What!”

Right at Dierk’s face as he was drinking Kalbina’s blood.

“Kyaaak!”

Dierk immediately jumped back and fled, but his forehead was slashed.

Too fast a retreat — I stopped for now and hurled the sword.

A thrown blade wrapped in magic!

“Kaaak!”

Dierk, his shoulder torn, screamed but quickly scrambled up the stairs.

I recovered the sword while examining Kalbina’s wound.

Kalbina touched her nape with a dazed face.

“Haa, haaa…… Mmm, I was definitely bitten and had blood drawn?”

“You still seem conscious.”

“Wait. Before I get controlled……”

Kalbina drew a longsword that had fallen and caught her breath.

Then she stabbed it deep into her own right arm.

I was shocked, but Kalbina grinned at me.

“Aaaah. R-really hurts. Haa, haaa……”

“……I’ll prepare healing medicine once this is all over.”

“I know without explanation. Lucky my brother’s smart.”

Kalbina had self-harmed in case she got controlled and became the enemy.

Even an excellent swordsman couldn’t exert strength with a ruined arm.

If she didn’t hit an artery, she wouldn’t die, and taking healing medicine later would leave no aftereffects.

The best move she could think of on the spot.

But what surprised me was how she judged and acted without hesitation.

Kalbina, sweat pouring down her face, steadied her breathing and spoke.

“Go quickly. Don’t forget to properly pay back the bastard who did this to your sister.”

“Of course. Now then……”

I gave Iselen a look and ran.

As we ran, only our two sets of footsteps echoed.

“Strangely quiet. Then……”

Iselen trailed off.

I also nodded.

“Right, this is already Dierk’s stronghold……”

The moment I spoke, I stopped walking.

Twelve knights in armor stood blocking the first-floor lounge.

And on the second floor was Dierk looking down at us.

“Hahaha, did you think it was over just because you figured out my identity? Did you think you’d get out alive? Everyone here has already drunk my blood!”

“Like a third-rate villain from a story.”

“You know such things well?”

Had Iselen been reading?

When I asked quizzically, Iselen spoke softly.

“I read all the books the emperor left behind.”

“……That’s somewhat surprising.”

When the two of us chatted leisurely, Dierk’s expression soured.

“You’re both completely ignoring me right now……”

“Would a magician whose trick’s been exposed be respected? You should get off the stage yourself.”

I turned to Iselen.

“Up or down?”

“You go up.”

I immediately launched myself toward Iselen.

Iselen interlaced her fingers and became a foothold for me.

I stepped on it and…… leapt to the second floor in one bound!

“What!”

Dierk, who’d been looking down leisurely, was shocked.

The distance fell slightly short, so I added momentum with telekinesis and climbed onto the second-floor hallway.

“Attack! Attack!”

Dierk quickly fled toward the first-floor stairs while ordering the knights.

To protect him.

But the moment the knights on the first floor turned toward the second floor, Iselen unleashed a magic blade and severed their necks.

Still, more than half climbed to the second floor.

“Nngh!”

Dierk rolled down the stairs, and knights blocked me chasing behind him.

But I thrust a palm strike at the abdomen of the knight who’d just finished climbing the stairs.

Telekinetic Palm!

Fwooom!

With a sound like leather tearing, the knight was pushed back, and the second knight trembled violently and retreated.

My mental power had grown stronger, so Telekinetic Palm had now reached the stage of transmitting force.

Crash!

The knights couldn’t do anything and tumbled down the stairs in a lump.

“Kyaaaak!”

Dierk got tangled with the armored knights, then barely pushed them off with magic and emerged.

“Hk, heuurk.”

Dierk, standing mid-stairway, looked alternately at me slowly descending from the second floor and Iselen slowly approaching from the first floor.

Encirclement from above and below.

“Nngh!”

Dierk raised the fallen knights, but none were threatening.

Now it was certain.

First, Dierk’s control wasn’t perfect, and to do it properly required mental composure.

Cornering the main body like this and shaking him left no capacity to control.

Iselen spoke coldly.

“Now it’s over, vampire.”

“Wait! Let’s negotiate! Queen of Assassins!”

Dierk shouted desperately.

When Iselen ignored him and stepped on the stair ledge, Dierk shouted.

“You need to prevent the dark elves’ extinction!”

“……”

Hesitation.

I also stopped descending.

Normally in this situation, you’d just stick a sword in him, but right now the knights were acting as body shields.

There was no angle to throw a blade and finish Dierk.

And…… Iselen was wavering.

In the flickering light of the magic lamp on the first floor, the silver-haired dark elf stood frozen.

Dierk smiled and spoke.

“Hahaha, hahaha…… Ah, surprised? But as expected, that person’s words were correct. After you, there’s nothing left, right? But I can change that!”

“……”

“Now, Queen of Assassins. What you want is just that one man, isn’t it? You want to get Sirik Karakas back, right? Pray to that person! Then it’s possible! That person is a god!”

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

I cut in sharply.

Not only was I Sirik Karakas himself……

“Even if he were a god, he can’t freely manipulate human souls. That’s a story I already know sickeningly well!”

“Ah, but it’s possible with the person’s consent. Sirik Karakas cried and begged that person for forgiveness, you see? Saying it was his fault so please send him back to earth. That he’d do anything……”

Low-quality deception.

I let out a hollow laugh, but…… Iselen didn’t move.

She stood frozen like a wooden pole.

An ominous atmosphere.

……No way, she’s falling for such a third-rate trick?

When I couldn’t understand, Dierk sneered.

“Hahaha, even the always confident Rigen Librata can’t understand. But you should understand the Queen of Assassins’s position too. At this rate, the dark elves will end.”

“What are you talking about?”

At my words, Dierk raised his voice.

Confidently.

“Everyone’s amazed by the dark elves’ information transmission speed, right? But if that disappeared overnight, it’d be over, wouldn’t it?”

“……”

Right.

In Karakas, even the fastest mail was relay horses or carrier pigeons.

But dark elves were different.

They used messengers.

Information transmission that only worked between dark elves.

When everyone else wrote letters by hand, they had KakaoTalk and Line.

So other races could never catch up in information transmission.

This was the dark elves’ unique ability — information transmission.

What made it possible……

“……”

Was Iselen, who was currently silent.

Dark elf information transmission was possible because the Queen existed.

Because the Queen was the messenger server.

If the Queen were to depart for the afterlife, dark elves could no longer use information transmission.

For the weak dark elves, this was a matter of racial survival.

So the Queen bore children and passed down the power as server, the royal authority, generation after generation.

I already knew all this.

“Once that Queen of Assassins disappears, dark elf information transmission is all over.”

“But she can pass it to her child, right? Orca is……”

There’s a son, isn’t there?

I said without thinking, and Dierk cackled with laughter.

“Orca? That son? Impossible! Only women can manage dark elf information transmission!”

“……”

“In other words, if that Queen dies right now, the dark elves are finished!”

……What?

At this unimaginable story, I froze.

I knew about the dark elves’ ability, and that it was possible because the Queen existed.

Even that it continued through bloodlines.

But that only women could do it — this was the first I’d heard.

“……Why, why didn’t you say anything?”

“……”

I asked Iselen.

She wouldn’t answer someone who wasn’t Sirik, but I couldn’t let this pass.

“You shouldn’t have done that? Then……”

The dark elves’ information transmission ability was truly important.

An issue for the entire race — no, now it became an issue for the entire empire.

Iselen should know this matter’s severity better than anyone.

Dierk smiled triumphantly.

“Hahahaha, ahahaha! Rigen Librata doesn’t understand women’s hearts at all? Her race’s fate or whatever — she just doesn’t want anyone but that person?”

“……”

“That woman who becomes bloodied and cuts people’s throats without hesitation, but in bed wants to know only one man — if it’s not that person, she refuses! Just that cute stubborn kitty determination brought things this far……”

“You shut up.”

I cut off Dierk’s words with Roar.

I’d kill Dierk.

But more than that, I wanted to hear Iselen’s answer right now.

“Iselen.”

“……”

Silence.

“Seventeenth Queen Iselen Lagriz.”

Flinch.

Iselen slowly raised her head.

The Queen whose hands and body were dirtied with enemy blood.

The silver-haired dark elf standing in the dim moonlight from the window looked up at me on the stairs endlessly.

“……Why didn’t you say anything?”

“……”

“Even though we grew distant, you still should have talked about this. Then……”

It was a story involving my people, the dark elves’ entire lineage, the empire’s fate.

She should have confessed that her son Orca couldn’t inherit the royal authority.

Even I, who’d resolved not to see my wives’ faces, would have reconsidered if I’d known this fact.

Iselen looked up at me blankly, with an incredulous face.

“What exactly are you saying right now……”

“Where do you think I heard the name Lagriz?”

“Orca told……”

“Do you think Orca would be so reckless? He was a child who wouldn’t tell me any of your faults. You know he was a child who’d shoulder everything and say you did nothing wrong.”

“……”

“You told me directly. After we’d fought and leaned side by side against a stone wall, watching the sunset, you suddenly told me. That it was something you’d allow only to me in the world.”

“Ah.”

A single cry.

At this moment, Iselen saw only me.

I spoke firmly.

“There’s no time for long explanations now. As someone who handles information, I know you can’t immediately believe what’s happening.”

“……”

“But don’t be swayed by such nonsense. Was the Sirik Karakas you knew a man who’d submit to the Seven Sin God because he died? I have too many lost friends and comrades to do that, far too many.”

Iselen stared at me blankly.

Eyes wavering, intuitively sensing who I was speaking as, yet denying it, wanting to believe again.

I spoke without hesitation.

“Time has passed and my appearance has greatly changed. Right, no matter how much I explain, you can’t believe it. But when you met me again, was your pounding heart a lie? Didn’t I, who dared defy you when everyone fears you as the Queen of Assassins, seem strange?”

“……”

“Wasn’t I uniquely not angry about Orca’s matter?”

Iselen trembled finely.

At the increasingly certain premonition.

I looked down at her and spoke.

“You said it, didn’t you? For us to unconditionally distance ourselves……”

“We’ve lost too much.”

Iselen answered as if she’d been waiting.

The last conversation I, Sirik Karakas, had with Iselen while alive.

Words no one but us would know.

I spoke calmly.

“My answer was this: We’ve lost too much to stop. But I don’t feel like going together.”

“……Yeah.”

I spoke calmly.

“There’s much to talk about. Even after saying it several times, you won’t be able to fully believe it. So let’s catch that bastard first.”

“No, I believe you.”

Iselen slowly shook her head.

Then shook it once more.

With tear-filled eyes, she smiled brightly and called out.

“Sirik.”

“Right, Lagriz.”

I also smiled and spoke.

“I’ve returned.”